Harry Potter: This senior is pretty strong

"Wow, it's Qin, Qin from Gryffindor, he's here for the selection too!" A petite girl with light blond hair excitedly told her companion from the Ravenclaw stands.

At this moment, several Gryffindor candidates had already slowly flown up the field on their flying broomsticks.

"It really is him! Very few first-year students participate in the selection process, he's really amazing!" his companion said with shining eyes.

“When we were in class together, I felt that he was very special. Not only was he good at studying, but he could also chat with the teachers calmly and naturally. Moreover, he loved to laugh…” the blonde girl murmured.

"Yes, he has such a handsome smile, with two shallow dimples..." his companion said with deep agreement.

"Should we cheer him on?"

"Huh? Well... he's not from our college, wouldn't that be inappropriate?"

Just as the two were whispering to each other, a voice came from not far away from them—

"Qin! Go for it!"

The two turned around and saw a girl from the same grade and college as them.

Both girls raised an eyebrow, no longer hesitating, turned around, and simultaneously cupped their hands around their mouths, shouting loudly, "Qin, go for it!" "Qin, you're the best!"

That voice immediately rose an octave above the girl who had spoken before them.

……

Qin Yu was somewhat surprised to hear the cheers and encouragement coming from the stands around him as he took to the air.

Although he had previously thought to himself that Cedric was nothing special and that one shouldn't underestimate a young man's potential, he had to admit that he couldn't compare to the kid's popularity. After all, Cedric had been enrolled for over a year and was active in various school activities, making him a minor celebrity, while he had only been enrolled for less than a month and probably didn't even have many people who knew him.

However, he was surprised to find that there seemed to be quite a few people cheering him on, with Gryffindor students making up the majority, but also a considerable number from other houses.

Looking around at the stands, Qin Yu saw people waving and shouting at him in the Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and even Slytherin seating areas.

—Yes, most of them were younger first-year students, and Qin Yu recognized quite a few familiar faces.

It seems I do have some popularity. Qin Yu couldn't help but feel a little smug, then gave a reserved smile and waved to the people in the stands.

What Qin Yu didn't know was that he was already a special case among the first-year students.

His mature demeanor, exceptional learning ability (he's been actively answering questions and working hard to earn points lately), warm and welcoming attitude towards classmates (except for Jerome), undeniable leadership qualities (referring to Jimmy and Elvis always hanging around him), and the extent to which he's liked by professors (he can chat with any teacher)—all these qualities make him an object of envy, admiration, and even jealousy among the first-year students.

In fact, many girls have secretly gathered together to share all information about him, and Elvis has become an important source for them to subtly inquire about information from time to time.

That's right, they knew exactly what Qin Yu's birthday was, what his favorite color was, what his favorite food was, what books he liked to read, and even how many pairs of socks he owned.

If Qin Yu knew all this, he would definitely beat Elvis up and then throw him into the Black Lake to feed the fish.

Of course, it was much later when he learned of these things, and by then Elvis had long since "turned over a new leaf" and stopped doing this, and had deeply reflected on his mistakes.

……

Let's get back to the selection of batters.

After receiving encouragement from his classmates, Qin Yu felt full of energy, especially Elvis and Jimmy, who even put up a banner, which looked quite professional. However, because the distance was too far and the banner was too small, he couldn't see what was written on it.

In any case, he became much calmer.

Then, looking at the giant owl models floating in the sky, he really wanted to complain about Professor Swinton's imagination.

It is said that Professor Swinton personally designed the rules for this batsman selection.

First, he had ten large black and ten large owl models placed in the sky, using these owls floating in the air and making irregular movements to represent the imaginary players.

Then, the organizer of this selection throws a certain number of roaming balls into the air, with the goal of attacking the white owls.

Next, the students will use their baseball bats to knock the wandering balls away, with the aim of protecting the white owl from being hit by the wandering balls and shooting down the black owl as much as possible.

Ultimately, the criteria for judgment will be based on the number of times the white owl is protected and the number of black owls are shot down.

These rules are actually fine and normal, but looking at those adorable round-faced chubby bird models, Qin Yu felt that the art style was a bit too incongruous.

Of course, this is very Swinton.

……

Time did not slow down at all because of Qin Yu's complaints. Soon the whistle blew and the selection officially began.

This time, there were five Gryffindor students, including Qin Yu, George, and Fred.

The five people were scattered and suspended in the air, maintaining a distance of thirty or forty meters from each other.

Shortly after the whistle blew, several Quidditch team members, led by Charlie and Wood, began releasing the Blinker.

"Whoosh!" "Whoosh!" "Whoosh!" "Whoosh!" "Whoosh!"

One after another, the sound of air being torn apart rang out as five roaming balls shot towards the floating white owls like solid cannonballs.

As the wandering balls came hurtling towards him, a senior Gryffindor candidate, bat in hand, charged towards the nearest one. As he got close, he yelled and swung his bat at it.

However, whether it was because he swung the bat too much or because he couldn't control the flying broomstick, he lost his balance and fell forward. The bat in his hand swung off course, and the flying ball hit his arm with a thud.

"what!"

The man screamed and fell from the sky along with the out-of-control flying broom.

Fortunately, the teacher cast a slowing spell on him upon landing, so he did not suffer further injury when he hit the ground.

However, the impact from the ball had clearly injured his arm badly, and he lay on the ground howling in pain.

At this moment, several senior students who were waiting on the sidelines to act as first aiders calmly ran over. After arriving, they first skillfully cast a pain-relieving spell on his arm, and then worked together to lift him onto a stretcher and quickly carry him away so as not to affect the selection of other people on the court.

The entire process was as smooth as flowing water, indicating that they had performed similar emergency rescues more than once before.

Well, in Quidditch, breaking an arm or leg is normal, let alone a minor injury like a dislocation.

……

The injured guy was eliminated immediately, which also served as a reminder to the remaining four players on the field: dealing with moving balls is not so simple!

George and Fred exchanged a glance and immediately abandoned their plan to confront the ball head-on. Instead, they decided to let the ball fly for a while so they could find the right opportunity to attack.

The contestant Qin Yu didn't recognize immediately flew to the white owl he was guarding, adopting a wait-and-see approach.

Qin Yu smiled as he watched the ball fly towards him.

He stretched his neck and shoulder joints, then bent down and pressed down on the wooden handle of the flying broom.

Then, he activated his flying broom and shot out with a whoosh!

"Huh? What is Qin doing? Why is he flying in another direction? There are no roaming balls there." The light blonde girl exclaimed in confusion.

"Yeah, he probably flew to the side because he was afraid of getting hit by the ball..." his companion muttered.

“How could that be! Qin isn’t that kind of person! How could he possibly be afraid!” the light blonde girl immediately retorted.

“I didn’t say he was afraid; he might just want to avoid it for a while…” his companion quickly explained.

"Maybe... I don't know..."

The two continued to stare at the sky, still puzzled.

Many people shared the same doubts as them, because Qin Yu did indeed fly to the side.

However, not everyone was oblivious. Even a seasoned Quidditch fan like Professor McGonagall, after seeing Qin Yu's actions, had a glimmer of light in her usually calm eyes.

Professor Swinton, who was also in the teachers' stands, showed an expression of surprise and delight.

“…attention-seeking.” Professor Snape couldn’t help but mutter, but a hint of admiration flashed in his eyes.

Those who understand will understand, and those who don't won't be puzzled for long, because Qin Yu flew so fast that he quickly told others his purpose.

After he flew out, he did not fly along a straight path to the side, but instead kept pulling the wooden handle of his flying broom to make rapid arcs.

This is roughly equivalent to driving around a roundabout in the Muggle world.

When he quickly circled around in a semicircle and returned, he was just approaching the roaming ball that he was defending.

So he sped up to catch up, keeping pace with the ball and quickly closing the distance.

At this moment, the wandering ball was less than ten meters away from the white owl it was guarding, and it was about to crash into the chubby, adorable bird model that was slowly swaying in the air.

At the crucial moment, Qin Yu used one hand to hold the flying broom to control its direction and speed, and with the other hand, he raised the baseball bat and smashed it hard at the wandering ball flying in the same direction.

Bang!

A loud crash rang out in the air.

Qin Yu's bat hit the wandering ball precisely, sending it flying!

The adorable white owl escaped being shot down and continued to float and sway in the air, as if it too was relieved to have escaped death.

"Splash splash splash!"

A round of enthusiastic applause erupted from the stands.

"That's an arc-shaped, circling, same-direction shot! This boy is amazing; he can actually pull off such a difficult move!" Someone knowledgeable exclaimed, recognizing the name of this classic move.

"That's right, it was indeed an arcing, circling shot in the same direction! I also suspected he was going to do that, but I instinctively felt it was impossible because it's a move only professional players can do! How could he possibly do it? But he really did it!" someone else chimed in.

"Is this difficult?" another person asked, somewhat doubtfully.

"Is it that hard? Can you drop the 'Is' part? The most important thing about this move is the ability to control the ball. If your speed and control skills aren't up to par, you simply can't catch up with the moving ball!" The first person to speak excitedly explained to this guy who didn't know anything about the ball.

"He can do this at such a young age, he has a bright future ahead of him!"

"Yes, yes, I'll definitely keep an eye on him from now on! By the way, what's this little boy's name? I've never heard of him before. What grade is he in?"

"He seems to be a first-year student. I heard the first-year kids around him calling him, I think it was Qin or King, but it was too noisy, I couldn't hear clearly."

"Whatever, I'm a fan now! Wow! You're awesome!"

……

Those who understood how impressive Qin Yu's move was were incredibly excited, explaining to those around them who didn't know just how cool and difficult the move was.

As for the first-year students who were already cheering for Qin Yu, they shouted even more enthusiastically.

Qin Yu, on the other hand, had no idea about the so-called "arc-shaped flying shot in the same direction"; he only understood the concept that "speed is relative."

We have to thank that guy who got hit by the ball; if Qin Yu hadn't seen how badly he was hit by the ball, he probably would have gone for it head-on.

However, after seeing the man's miserable state, Qin Yu quickly adjusted his strategy. Since he couldn't change the actual speed of the ball, he could fly in the same direction as the ball. In that case, the relative speed between the ball and him would become very small, or even "relatively stationary," so he wouldn't have to exert so much effort to hit the ball.

Having figured this out, Qin Yu executed a series of actions: circling back and forth, then flying in the same direction as the ball before striking it.

As it turned out, his idea was correct; he successfully knocked away the fast-moving ball, which gave Qin Yu a tiny bit of confidence and a sense of accomplishment.

Little did he know that he had inadvertently performed a highly difficult Quidditch tactical move in front of everyone, shocking the spectators.

During the subsequent selection process, Qin Yu continued to use his superior flight control and speed to knock the ball away from all directions.

Besides flying in an arc, he also tried different methods, unintentionally using many classic tactical maneuvers.

This turned the batsman selection process into a one-man show for him.

Of course, he hadn't undergone professional training, and some of his moves were impromptu, not executed properly, or he simply changed the result halfway through. However, this did not prevent many people from regarding him as a rising Quidditch star.

People like Professor McGonagall and Charlie Weasley, who were on the same side, were naturally overjoyed.

Professor Snape smacked his lips to himself, thinking that the future Gryffindor Quidditch team would be a bit troublesome, and he refrained from using any interference spells to bring that "show-off" kid down from the sky.

Since everyone's attention was focused on Qin Yu, the fact that the unnamed contestant was hit by the ball and landed didn't attract much attention, except for the dutiful and highly skilled rescue team.

As for the brothers George and Fred, they somehow teamed up to deal with those troublesome wandering balls, and each of them scored quite a few points in the end.

Of course, the two brothers did not break the rules by doing so, since there was no prior stipulation that they could not work together.

After the selection process, Qin Yu naturally became a Quidditch batter, while the brothers George and Fred became substitute batters.

Although they were substitutes, the two brothers were still very happy because they were truly impressed by Qin. Then, they came down from the sky and excitedly went to find Angelina Johnson, who was also selected for the Quidditch team, and told her that they would be teammates from now on and would take care of each other, and so on.

The Slytherin candidates who came on after Qin Yu performed rather poorly. One of them even tried to imitate Qin Yu's arc-shaped flying motion, only to throw himself off and unnecessarily increase the workload of the rescue team.

……

Qin Yu handed the borrowed flying broomstick to Charlie, then went to the stage to meet up with his roommates. Seeing how hard they were cheering him on, Qin Yu decided to treat them to various Honeydukes candies. Of course, Hagrid would have to go to Hogsmeade to buy them, as the lower-year students were not allowed to go out.

When Qin Yu arrived at the stands where the Gryffindor students were, he was greeted with enthusiastic cheers from everyone.

"Qin, you're amazing!" "Qin, that move of yours was absolutely incredible!" "Qin, can you teach me how to use the flying broom? I'm not very good at it yet."

Surrounded by a chorus of onlookers, Qin Yu smiled and greeted them as he walked away, getting a brief taste of what it's like to be a public figure.

Then he arrived at the place where Elvis and the others were.

When Elvis and Jimmy saw Qin Yu approaching, they quickly grabbed the small banner, which was probably made from Elvis's scarf, and shouted at Qin Yu, "Qin, you're amazing!"

Qin Yu finally saw the words on the banner clearly:

QIN IS THE KING

The autumn wind blew the banner made of scarf, making it flutter like a flag.

At this moment, neither the boy holding the banner nor the people looking at the words on the banner knew how this sentence would spread throughout the magical world in the future.

At this moment, they are simply enjoying a simple joy.

Joy should be simple.